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Bilingualism in neurodiverse children: Cognitive and social language skills
Project end date: December 31, 2026
We are inviting families to participate in a research study titled Bilingualism in Neurodiverse Children: Cognitive and Social Language Skills. This study aims to compare bilingual (children who speak two languages) autistic children with their non-autistic peers.
Our goal is to explore the similarities and differences in thinking and language skills across these groups and better understand how bilingualism affects children’s cognitive and language development.
Children aged 4 to 8 will engage in fun, child-friendly activities, such as describing pictures, repeating sentences and words, playing sorting games, and answering questions about images. Parents will complete questionnaires about their child’s communication skills and behaviors.
We are actively recruiting families across Canada, including Ontario regions, and are reaching out to Indigenous and diverse communities to ensure broad inclusion. The study is online and participating families will receive compensation for their time.
This study addresses misconceptions about bilingualism in Autistic children, aiming to demonstrate that acquiring a second language can support, rather than hinder, language development. We hope our findings will empower multilingual families with evidence-based guidance.